JSA and Housing Benefit

marywooyeah

Hello, one of my friends has said she is no longer entitled to HB as her and her partner have put in a claim for JSA -( I do not know if this is income based or contributions based).

It is correct that they would no longer get HB? their rent is £650 pcm, they have 2 young kids aswell. Not sure whether she is right or not so if someone could help I'd be very grateful as she is quite worried!

thanks in advance

Caz3121

is possible that they have savings that will affect means tested benefits? If their only income is JSA, CB and CTC they should be getting some HB - this would be based on the LHA for their are which may be lower than their rent (eg in Nottingham a 2 bed rate is £450 per month so even if they got full housing they would need to pay the extra from their benefits)

wannabehermit

Either their savings mean that they are not entitled (unlikely as by the sounds of your post she has already been in receipt of HB), or what is more likely is that a suspension has been put on her claim until the JSA claim has been completed. This happens when any change occurs. They put a suspension on the claim while the new details are being updated, just incase circs change for the better then that will stop any overpayments. HB ime are pretty good and get things going asap, but that may depend on different councils.

If the jsa claim is likely to take a long time (which they can do) she can write to the council asking them to consider them for payments in the meantime, she just needs to detail what her current income is and any savings and she should be able to get payments while the claim is going through. JSA with no savings should mean that she'd get her full entitlement so the stop is just a formality probably.

Avocado

As has already been said being on JSA they should get HB at either the maximum rate the council will pay it or at the whole cost of her rent, whichever is lower. But don't rule out misinformation. I can well imagine someone on the staff of one or other body saying something like "when your claim for X ends so will your entitlement to HB", which is technically true but very misleading. She might have had her claim fully stopped- in which case she needs to reapply ASAP (first thing Monday) but as long as she does she should now be able to get the same rate of HB as she had before or more as JSA is the lowest income level.

marywooyeah

thanks for the info I'll past it onto her, good to know it sounds like she'll still be entitled after all as this has caused her a lot of sleepness nights!